


Getting to know Chloe

by Redius



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, alive rachel, and jeffershit is nowhere to be seen, au where max never left and rachel never died, dropout!max, punk!max, thank god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-12 10:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7099477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redius/pseuds/Redius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe runs into Kate, literally, trying to outrun the cops. Kate ends up feeling drawn to her punkish charm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Goodnight, Kate. Have a safe walk home!” the receptionist at the animal shelter said to me sweetly as I exited the automatic doors. I had taken to volunteering there during the winter, due to budget cuts they had to sacrifice some of the staff to keep the animals warm in these freezing arcadia months.

“Thank you, goodnight, Sharon.” I returned as the doors closed behind me, taking to my normal path home.

It was cold out tonight, my nose and ears sting the marvellous feeling of winter and I can see my breath in front of me in the form of wispy white fog, watching the trails of vapour dance in the air I get lost in the unintentional patterns the fog of my breath would hold for just a second, before disappearing into the night. Taking a deep breath out I twirl my finger around in the larger Kate-made cloud before hearing a strange thudding on the other side of the fence next to me. I stop and watch it as a hand grabs over the top, then another, then a head peeps out over the wooden barrier, before I know it the figures whole body is over the fence and they’ve ran directly into me. With a loud “Ooff!”  And a sharp pain to my elbows we’ve crashed to the floor and they’re on top of me. Franticly looking around to figure out what the hell is going on I see multiple other figures scrambling over the fence and scattering in every direction once on the this side. It’s not long before I realise what they were running from. Sirens.

As a police officer expertly vaults the tall fence he, picks us both up and holds us firmly and roughly by the wrists, the person beside me is thrashing in his grip while yelling profanities at him, it’s a she.

“Don’t touch me!” the mystery girl hisses at the man “Let go of me, asshole!” as the sirens get louder and louder until the approaching car whizzes to a stop in front of the three of us and before long, we’re both cuffed and stuffed in the back. I don’t have any time to object to it, to tell them I don’t even know what’s happening, heck I can’t even process what’s going on! When the girl next to me stops kicking and screaming I lean forward.

“Uhm…” I begin “Excuse me officer?” I get a grunt from the wide shouldered man in the passenger seat in return “There’s been a misunderstanding I’m not involved in thi-“ He holds his hand up to stop me.

“Don’t try to get out of this, sweetie. The law always wins.” The drawls out, monotone, before the girl next to me speaks up, civilly this time.

“She’s telling the truth, Ricky-boy.” I looked over to her, in the dim yellowy light of passing street lamps I could make out the silhouette of her mouth moving and I was detecting hues of blue for her hair, which was smoothed messily under a saggy beanie. “I don’t even know who she is,” The girl continued “I smashed into her while making my great escape.” She gestured her hands into the air as if talking about something great in front of her in big flashing letters.

“I’m not buying it, Price. Drop it.” He turned around in the passenger seat and looked at us “You’re not getting yourself or your little buddy there out of this.” He jabbed a finger in my direction “This is the third time I’ve had to bust your little posse this week, honestly its becoming second nature.”

The rest of the drive was silent, expect for whoever this ‘Price’ was next to me huffing and puffing while whispering stuff under her breath. When we arrived at the station we were put in a small cell, bare of anything except for a solid bench attached to the far wall and two rock hard ‘mattresses’. The officer stepped into the cell with us, closing the sturdy metal door behind him, my still unknown girl got into a jumping jack positon and just stared at the man blankly as he approached, it was as if she’s done this a thousand times. The officer began to pat her down removing various things as she did so, throwing them to the ground beside him I could see, a box of matches, a lighter, a pack of smokes, a brown small brown case and a tiny zip lock bag of what looks like foliage but I can only assume is drugs. Chloe scoffed and sat on the bench watching the burly man move on to me.

“Heh, first time in here, eh?” He chuckled “Don’t worry, if you’re running with Chloe I’m bound to see you a few more times.” He sighed throwing a glance over my shoulder to Chloe while harshly patting my arms. “Alright you’re clean.” He pulled a breathalyser off of his belt and outstretched it to me “Blow as hard as you can into this please ma’am.” I did as I was told “Hm.” He looked at me “Alright, you’re completely clean… Price!” Chloe stood up and done the same as me, except when he looked at it he sighed “0.15” Okay I’ll phone your dad, but you’ll probably be in here overnight like last time. Picking up the contraband he left the cell, closing the cold door behind him with a slam.”

Turning to face Chloe, who looked all too relaxed, she was stretched out on the mattress, her clunky combat boot-clad feet resting on the bench with her eyes shut and her arms behind her head.

“How are you so calm?!” I was losing my cool “Why am I here!? I didn’t do anything wrong!” I grip my head with my hands and flop down to sit on the other mattress.

“Dude, its fine.” Chloe opened one eye “My stepshit’ll get you out tomorrow morning,” She sat up when she noticed I was actually distressed “don’t worry they never bother to put anything on any ‘criminal-record’” Silence. We looked around the room and snuck little peeks of one another. “Um” The blue haired girl began “I’m Chloe.”

“Kate.”

“Well, Kate. Ya come here often’?” She jokingly winked at me and I couldn’t help but feel madness boil inside the pit of my stomach.

“Why is this not bothering you? Why are you being so casual about this?” I flung my arms around visibly distressed “We’re in a cell. In _jail._ I don’t know about you but I have class tomorrow!” She looked taken aback “It’s your fault I’m here! You need to get me out.”

“I will I will, sheesh. Like I said, cupcake. My stepdouche will bail us out tomorrow morning…. _Before classes start_. Probably at like half six cause he’s gotta be at work by seven.” I sighed at the thought of spending the whole night in this hard stone room.

“Alright, fine.” I massaged my temples “so are you going to tell me what you did to get here… And land me here with you?”

“Uhh…” Chloe pulled her beanie down over her face, “Yeah, sure” She uttered somewhat unsure. “Me and my friends were out just having a good time y’know?” She pulled the beanie back onto her head before propping herself up against the concrete wall “With help from, um. Somewhat, _illegal_ substances…” Her voice drops in volume “And then I saw a really cute puppy, so we might have committed break and entry to pet him.”

“You broke into somebody’s property for a dog?” I questioned sceptically, with one eyebrow cocked.

“It was such a cute dog!” My cell mate pulled her beanie off once more and playfully threw it at me.

“Well, I admire your commitment to the cause.” I giggled at the serious, yet comical crime.

 

The rest of the night included learning random facts about each other and sharing funny stories about our lives before passing out on our individual rock beds. In the morning we were awoken by the ear-piercing squeak of the door opening, sitting up and turning to face the source of the disturbance I saw a tall thin, vaguely familiar man with a moustache stepping into the room towards Chloe, who was stumbling to her feet.

“Morning, David!” She taunted him by beeping his nose with her index finger. The man completely ignored it, his stare burning holes through Chloe.

“How many more times, Chloe?” The man’s voice was stern yet sullen, he seemed disappointed in her as he spoke. “And why should I look out for your friends” He swung his arm backwards, pointing at me half-heartedly “when they encourage this behaviour?” Turning around his face dropped when making eye contact with me “Kate Marsh?”

“Wait you know each other?” Chloe intercepted

“I work at Kate’s school. But I really did not expect such a nice well behaved student like Kate to get involved with you Chloe. I got to say I’m a little disappointed in you.” He spoke to me as I was his child.

“We actually only met a few hours ago. When Chloe knocked me over and dragged me into all this.”

David sighed. “Well come on let’s get you two out of here.”

He marched us to his car, dropping Chloe off at what I assume was her house before running himself and myself back to Blackwell Academy. After properly thanking him for his kindness I went to my dorm room, sleepy and slowly, to prepare for today’s classes.


	2. Chapter 2

A few days had passed since spending that night in jail, it made me really want to try so hard in my classes to not end up like Chloe, as mean as that sounds.

Waking up in the middle of the night, I can hear laughter booming from outside the dorms, getting out of bed and walking towards the main door to the building I poked my head out, seeing a few girls from the dorm sitting on the steps, visibly intoxicated. The smell of cheap beer coming from them reminded me of the scent that clung to my blue haired acquaintance’s breath. It’s been about a week since that whole fiasco, and Chloe was right; I didn’t get a record. Which I’m very happy about, but I also haven’t seen Chloe for a while, occasionally I’d hear sirens when I was walking beck to campus from my volunteering on Friday afternoons and I’d think of her oddly charming personality, and I’ve noticed I kind of miss her and her carelessly laid back body language.

“Heyyy, Kate!” Dana whipped her head around and greeted me.

“Hi Dana.” I awkwardly smiled back at her.

“You wanna join us?” She asked swaying a brown glass bottle around in the quiet night darkness.

“No thank you. Could I get passed?” I asked trying to step around them.

“’course” Dana, Juliet, Alyssa and Brooke all shuffled and scooted out my way happily. Slipping past them the cool concrete of the path was rough against my feet, wearing only socks. I didn’t know where I was going, why didn’t I just go back to bed? Something made me want to go for a wander.

 

Finding myself on the beach I listened to the soft ‘swoosh’ of the ocean, as I stroll along I relish the feeling of the soft smooth sand, like grainy silk underneath my socks. Closing my eyes and allowing the gentle moonlight ghost across my skin my peaceful silence is interrupted by someone calling for me.

“Hey you!” The voice sounded familiar. “Hey! Over here!”

Startled, I swirled around trying to locate the source of the voice, not seeing anyone I scanned the ground. I finally seen the source. It was only a head, the rest of the body engulfed by sand.

“Uh hello?” I call out to the person.

“Kate?” The voice asks and then it clicks, it’s Chloe.

“Chloe?”

“Uh, yeah. Um a little help?” She nervously giggled about the situation she was in.

As I approached her and noticed she had been buried in the sand, the grains packed densely together I smiled at the stupidity of the situation.

“What happened?” I questioned “How long have you been buried under there?” Getting down onto my knees I started scraping the sand away from around the blue haired girl’s body.

“A few hours, my friends thought it’d be funny.” As her arms became free she wriggled them around, the sand collapsing in around her and becoming soft. “I’m just glad they were smart enough to bury me higher than where the tide would’ve reached.” Chloe’s entire arms became free and she used them to pull herself up and out of the Chloe sized crater.

I laughed at the stance she took once out, covered in sand.

“Umm, thanks…” Chloe mumbled, blinking sand out her eyes. I offered assistance by rubbing the sand of off her arms and front. “Sorry, my friends are stupid.”

“It’s okay. How come they left you?” I queried still brushing sand off her.

“Eh, they we’re just kinda high and thought it’d be funny, I agreed to do it but they forgot about me.”

“That’s not that nice of them…” I stopped trying to remove the sand from Chloe my mind wandered to an idea “you should hang out with my friends and me sometime.” I nodded my head once.

“I-I don’t know about that.” Chloe anxiously tapped at the back of her head “I don’t get along with most people, maybe next time, thanks though.”

“Alright, that’s okay.” I smiled at her accepting that she didn’t want to, but still I wanted to be able to spend time with her, for some reason I was drawn to her. “Do you want to maybe spend time together with your friends? Or even just us?” I suggested.

“I don’t know if my friends are for you. But we can hang out sometimes sure.” She reached into her sand-filled pocket taking out her beat up phone, sand was resting in the cracks on the screen and in the speakers “Can I get your phone number then?”

I agreed and gave the digits to her gladly. She offered to walk me back to my dorm room and I accepted, the girls were still on the steps when we got back. Stopping near the bench outside of the building we stood close to each other.

“Alright, well goodnight Kate.” Chloe smiled, looking down at me from her tall stance.

“You too thank you for walking me home.”

“No problem. Well thank you, for digging me out of that sand death trap.” She chuckled friendlily and I giggled at her goofy smile.

“It’s okay… Well I’ll see you soon?”

“Yep, I’ll text you.” The taller girl put her hands into her pocket as she watched me walk away. As I made my way past the girls outside their confused eyes following me into the dorm.


	3. Chapter 3

Chloe did text me that night, I saved her number and we went out that weekend, Chloe picked me up in a rusted beat up truck at the front of the school.

“Heyo friendo” The blue haired girl smirked as I clambered into the vehicle.

“Hello.” I replayed back friendlily, pulling my seat belt over me and clipping it in. “So, where we are going?”

“I was thinking we could go to the diner I work at, I get a pretty sweet discount plus they have the most amazing milkshakes!” Chloe animatedly threw her arms in the hair while describing these milkshakes, so I thought they had to be good “Then next weekend we could go somewhere you want to go?” She added, smiling at me.

“Next weekend?” A gin stretched across my face. “Alright that sound like a great plan!”

The truck revved and started to move. It was a short drive to the diner, when we arrived outside it Chloe parked her vehicle with minimal fuss and led me into the diner. Once inside the establishment was quaint and felt homely, Chloe let me pick where to sit so I chose two stools by the main counter. Once we had sat down a blonde woman with her hair tied back approached us from in the kitchen.

“Hi mom.” Chloe groaned “I thought you were off today.”

The older lady leaned on the counter “Well it’s nice to see you too Chloe. The woman’s voice was sly, she appeared to enjoy picking fun of her daughter, to which I giggled. “Who’s your friend?” She smiled at me and I smiled back.

“My names Kate.” I shyly projected my quiet voice so it could be heard.

“Nice to meet you Kate, I’m Joyce. Chloe’s mom.” She leaned farther over the counter and ruffled Chloe’s beanie, to which Chloe swatted at her hand to get away. “What can I get’cha?” Joyce asked chuckling and pulling a pad of paper and a pen out.

“Can we just get two milkshakes mom?” Chloe seemed embarrassed by her mother being around her.

“Sure thing, vanilla okay?” Chloe’s mom looked at me.

“Yes, thank you.” And with that the older woman walked away.

There was a small moment of silence as both Chloe and I looked directly ahead, fiddling with whatever was in front out us. Chloe broke the silence.

“Sorry about Joyce, I thought she’d be off today.” Chloe turned on the worn stool.

“It’s alright.” I started genuinely “She seems like a lot of fun.”

“You don’t know the half of it…” Joyce approached with our drinks and winked welcomingly at me and placed each of our drinks in front of us “Enjoy girls.” And with that Joyce was off helping other customers.

We had friendly and idle chit chat, and really started to form a bond throughout the 20 or so minutes it took us to finish our shakes plus the other 30 minutes we had just sitting and conversing. When we were done Chloe approached her mother and handed her a $5, before waving me over as she approached the door and was rather chivalrous and held the door open for me, leading me out by ghosting her hand just above my waist. The whisper of contact made my heart jump and face heat up. Once back in the truck my newfound friend, drove me home. I thanked her for a fun time and we scheduled a time for next weekend. Saturday at 6pm Chloe asked where I’d like to go, I gave her the name of a small family run bookstore id been wanting to visit.

Back in my dorm I thought about the little diner - it was quaint and cute, and does have the greatest milkshakes I’ve ever tried in my life. After hanging out that day I went there almost every day that week, after the first few times my friends asked me why I keep going there so I told them it was because of how amazing the milkshakes were, but really it was because I’d see Chloe. Chloe would beam at me from the little window in the kitchen when she was working in there or if she was on waitress duty she would make sure to take my order and leave me little messages on the receipts or napkins for me, saying how she hopes I have a nice day and that she can’t wait to hang out more. I kept all the little note, reading them made my heart beat faster and hands to get clammy for a reason unknown to me.


	4. Chapter 4

Saturday at 5:55pm exactly I had a knock at my dorm room door, it was Chloe here to pick me up. When I answered the door she jokingly bowed and moved her hand to signal me out of the room, we got some little funny looks by the few girls communing in the hall, probably wondering what a punk like Chloe is doing hanging out with a ‘prude’ like me. Ignoring them, I closed my door and locked it, when I turned to face Chloe she was still playing the character, her posture was held up instead of her usual douchey looking slouch, and her hand was put in a sort of triangle way, waiting for me to take it. When I did we walked to her truck like this, she spoke in a cheesy, bad English accent “Allow me to get that for lady.” As she opened the truck door. It was cute and made me smile. 

When we got to the bookstore, she had long dropped the humorous act and we spent time laughing at the old timey language used in the really old books, and much to Chloe’s excitement they had copies of her favourite manga, I felt warm when I was watching her get excited over little things in the issue she was scanning, she would enthusiastically point out little things in the plot and beam at me and I would smile back and ask her about it, even though I knew nothing about it I was happy to talk about what she likes with her because the way her eyes lit up made me feel fulfilled. After an hour spent in there, we decided it’d be nice to go for a walk down the main street. We walked side by side, sometimes our hands would brush and my face would heat up. This confused me, I didn’t really understand why it would happen I’d brush hands accidentally with Stella, Alyssa or Brooke and it wouldn’t be that big a deal for me, it wouldn’t make me feel that way. As they brushed again, I extended out my pinkie, stretching it towards hers. My act of bravery was accompanied by the holding of my breath, our pinkies were so close I could feel her body heat. Suddenly I was pulled out of thought when I felt Chloe next to me suddenly barrel to the side away from my body, and my pinkie, I whipped my head around and she was mid-sprint across the road yelling. 

“ParKOUR!!”

A car was speeding towards her and she was showing no fear about it. I covered my mouth, my heart felt as if it was trying to escape by busting a hole in my chest cavity as I watched in complete confusion, the car horn was honking and Chloe took to the air jumping, barreling her body the rest of the way and landing what I can only assume as painfully on her front, on the other sidewalk. The car pulled up to the side, the driver seemed completely calm about the whole deal. Crossing the street - when it was safe to, I approached the car and started to apologize.

“I’m so sorry for Chloe’s idiocy I don’t know why-” Chloe stopped me.

“It’s okay Kate, these are some of my friends.” She gestured to the two girls in the car, both wearing baggy flannels with tears in them. The one in the driver’s seat had multiple badges pinned on her flannel and a carton of cigarettes sticking out of her shirt pocket, she was also visibly shorter. Her hair was a light brown colour but had been dyed green at just the tips, the other’s hair was long and blonde, and she was wearing one single blue feather earring which stuck out in contrast with the soft colour of her golden hair. “Kate, this is Mad Max,” The one in the driver’s seat yanked her hand up off the steering wheel in acknowledgement “and Rachel.” The blonde girl in the car waved her fingers at me, sticking out her tongue.

“What’s up?” They Max said her voice sounded painful, and scratchy.

“Not a lot, we’re just hanging out.” Chloe answered as Rachel looked me up and down. I was wearing my usual outfit, minus the cardigan which I had left in Chloe’s truck before entering the bookstore.

“So… That’s Kate?” Rachel dryly and outwardly asked. Chloe’s body language went from relaxed to uncomfortable in under a second, she shot up straight and pulled her arms up to cross them.

“Yeah it is why?” Chloe spoke quickly and slightly aggressively.

“I didn’t know you’d like such a…” The blonde trailed off “Mrs Grundy…”

I was taken aback by this statement and apparently so was Chloe, she was now leaning on the car door and into the vehicle through the open window looking annoyed. “Dude, cut that out.”

“Cut what out, I’m just using my freedom of speech.” Rachel scoffed.

“Rach, c’mon don’t be a bitch, you’ve never even spent time with Kate and you’re judging her. That’s not cool.” Chloe was staring into the car for a few seconds before Rachel through her hands up.

“Ugh, fine whatever, you’re completely overreacting but fine. Sorry I hurt your precious Katie’s feelings.”

“Um, we should go.” Max awkwardly drawled. “See you Thursday though, for burning dragon… right Chloe?”

“Yeah.”

We watched the small car drive away before I asked Chloe “What’s ‘burning dragon’?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just a weird tradition my friends and I have. This Thursday’s the day I got expelled from Blackwell… And the day Max and Rachel dropped out in an act of loyalty or whatever, so we always hang out that day…” She scratched the back of her neck “Plus, we hard core pranked the school that night, so we always do it again and then head up to the light house and burn pictures of principle wells, or as we used to call him ‘the dragon’”

“Oh… that’s cool.” I said my voice visibly unsure.

“Yeah it’s kinda lame, especially when Rachel’s in one of those moods, I dunno what her problem is.”

We started to walk back to the truck and drive back to Blackwell, during the drive home my mind went back to what Rachel said ‘so that’s Kate?’ I look at Chloe who’s focused on the road.

“What did Rachel mean when she said ‘that’s Kate’?” Chloe’s grip tightened on the wheel and her eyes widened slightly.

“Oh, um I had told them about you… Tha-that we were hanging out is all.” She finished.

“Oh okay. Why did you just run in front of their car though? That’s really dangerous and quite an inefficient way to get their attention.”

“Oh I think you’ll find it is _very_ efficient.” She joked, though I was being serious.

When we reached the parking lot and Chloe got out to open my door, I thanked her for her kindness and for such a nice day. Before impulsively going for a hug without thinking about it, nevertheless Chloe accepted it and hugged back which made my heart race again.

“Well I’ll see you next time.” I simpered.

“Yep, I’ll text ya.” She waved me off with a lame two fingered salute.


	5. Chapter 5

Later in the week, I awoke strangely and randomly in the middle of the night, stretching and sitting up I wasn’t fully aware of my surroundings yet. Reaching for where my phone was, I sloppily grabbed it and pressed the home button a smile spreading across my face at the picture of Alice that greeted me. The time was 1:29am on Tuesday night. Lying back down I pulled my legs up and squished as tight as I could into a ball, before hearing a strange noise right outside my door, a thump, then a drawled out scrape, then another thump. I immediately shot up in bed my paranoid thoughts instantly going everywhere, so many thoughts and scenarios raced through my mind along flashbacks to pyramid head from that silent hill movie, dragging his giant weapon along the ground. Warren had made me watch the movie once when we used to hang out, I never forgot about it.

Slowly, I was timid in approaching the door, no more noises were coming from the hall. Thankfully. Placing my hand onto the cold handle and exhaling, I grasped the handle tightly before rapidly opening the door, screaming when a body flailed and toppled over onto my feet, I jumped back adrenaline coursing through my body.

“ughhh…” The figure moaned “calm down please. It’s just me.”

“Chloe?” I gasped loudly, my hand jutting to my fear-filled beating heart.

“Yeah.” The figure grunted as she levered herself onto her knees, using the bedside table to pull herself up to a standing position. “Chloe.” She repeated after me before flipping the light switch.

I was greeted by a disheveled, and messed up image of Chloe. Her lip was split and her eye was visibly swelling, a messy line of crusty blood was running from her lip and down her toned neck and her left forearm had a beautifully bright red splat with two visible blisters littered on her pale skin.

“Chloe! Are you okay?” My voice was louder than I was meaning for it to be. And I was scolded by a banging on the wall next door and Victoria telling me to ‘shut it because she has class tomorrow’

“Yeah I just…” The shabby blue haired girl winced as she spoke “ _Might_ have gotten into a _little_ ” She shot up her unburned arm, holding her index finger and thumb barely a centimeter from one another  “fight…” She finished moving her eyes down to the floor.

“What, why?” I was concerned, moving close to Chloe and reaching out to touch her bruising eye.

“It-it’s. It’s not important” The tall punk moved away from my touch.

“Hmmm.” I raised my eyebrows waiting for a farther answer, “Alright.” not thinking I turned and snatched a small washcloth from my dresser before grabbing her hand, which made her wince in pain. Pulling her out of my room and into the bathroom, the artificial luminescence of the lights allowed me to fully assess the injuries of my friend.

“God, Chloe.” I gasped “It looks really bad.” Letting go of her hand I rushed to wet the washcloth “Your knuckles are bleeding.” I stated bluntly.

“I know. It’s okay.”

“No it’s not.” Shutting the faucet off, I turned to face her. “Your lip is bleeding too.” Swiftly returning to her side and dabbing at the dried blood that had once been streaming down her throat.

“ _Was._ ” She corrected me, jutting her index finger into the air.

“Hm.” I grunted, I didn’t appreciate the humor. I was worried. Assessing her further and cleaning up patches of crimson as I went I reached the burn, holding it up carefully to look at it “You’re burnt pretty badly.” I declared.

“Ah, it’s nothing honey” As soon as Chloe realised what she had said, I felt her stiffen up, sneaking a darting look to her face, her cheeks were tinted visible pinkish and her eyes were not in a relaxed position.

Smirking, I pulled her arm over to the sink and held it under the freezing water of the dormitories. “Honey?” I questioned.

“Uh um yeah, y’know like. G-good ol pals. Woo, good old katerooni.” she forced a laugh and I raised my eyebrows at her once again, one side of my mouth siding into a grin on its own.

“Alright then… cupcake.” I snickered.

“Cupcake!? C’mon!” She dramatically jolted her other arm around.

“Aaaa stop moving.” I softly commanded.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ohoho so i didnt have a plan for this chapter, i just sat and wrote it as i thought it. soit got kind of violet in this chapter.

After an unknown amount of time Chloe was completely patched up, and making herself at home in my dorm room, sitting relaxed on the unmade bed. Clambering up beside her, I looked at her scratched and bruising knuckles.

“They look sore.” I whispered sympathetically.

“They’re not. Don’t worry.” She looked at me sincerely.

I was still staring at her scabbed bony mounds. A sudden burst of confidence made me act swiftly, but once realising what I was about to do, I hesitated before making the move of sliding my hand under hers and intertwining our fingers. A smile spread across my face as she clasped her fingers softly around mine before I decided to lean my head on the older girl’s shoulder.

“Thank you.” She whispered barely audible.

“For what?” I hummed.

“For caring.”

There was silence after that for a long while. Neither of us daring to break the moment of whatever this was, so instead I sat and thought. Mostly about Chloe. About how this was okay, she was okay with this, _I_ was okay with this… My parents probably are _not_ okay with this but… It felt nice, it felt right. A shift in weight pulled me from my thoughts and Chloe shifted to get off the bed, letting my hand drop. Which also made my heart drop. I watched her move around the room before making for the door without saying anything, did she think I was asleep?

“You’re heading out again?” My voice was scratchy with the lull of sleep.

“Uh yeah…” She looked over at me. “Thanks again.”

“It’s two in the morning, Chloe.” I yawned

“I know.”

“At least take my jacket then.” I gestured to an army green waterproof that was draped over a peg next to the door. “It’s cold outside.”

Chloe opened her mouth to argue but appeared to think twice and reach for it. Pulling it over her body and opening the door “thanks”

“Wait.” I halted her, she looked at me confused “Can I come?”

“I-I… You have class tomorrow.”

“I know…” I bit my lip in thought, something in me knew she was going to do something stupid “Please. Tell me where you’re going?” I tried to reason.

The question hung heavily in the air, pushing down on my shoulders. She was silent in thought for a while “Back to burning dragon.” When she finally answered I saw a slight glint in her eye.

“Oh.” I looked away from her.

She sighed “Fine. Come on then.”

I smiled and jumped up off of the bed, pulling my pyjama trousers off and wriggling into a worn pair of jeans and yanking shoes on. Grabbing a hoodie on my way out to pull on once outside.

Chloe was walking with a rushed pace through the empty and dark hall, nobody else was awake since it was a school night. I should be asleep too. But something about Chloe’s company attracted me to her like a magnet, making it feel like I would be incomplete without her around me. Chloe held the door open for me, her face never changing from expressionless, her jaw clenched till the point it looked painful, without thinking I stopped halfway out the door staring back at Chloe who was looking at me with blatant confusion. Something was clearly bothering her, she didn’t want me coming with her I knew that much, but why?

She signed “You can go back if you wan-” Chloe started, but I cut the taller girl off by courageously setting a gentle kiss on her cold skinned cheek.

“No, I’m coming.” I assured firmly in my usual gentle tone. Starting to walk again I could basically hear Chloe’s internal confusion. I shouldn’t have done that, it was stupid. But it was also already done, with no way of taking it back. Chloe had to jog to catch up with me.

Reaching her truck and climbing in, she looked over at me while putting the key into the ignition

“Um,” She removed her hand from the key, now left dangling in the ignition “I feel I should tell you I’ve been drinking?” She studied my face, looking slightly apologetic.

As I replied “That’s okay, I trust you.” I could hear my mother’s voice screaming at me in my head. Shaking my head to remove the wails I felt a comforting warmth on my lower thigh, Chloe’s hand. Looking over to her in the dim light of the Blackwell night her face looked concerned yet serious.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

And with that, she removed her hand from me, leaving a patch cooler than the rest as the cold of night rushed to reclaim what was taken, using it to turn the key it revved the engine to life and settled onto the wheel expertly. We reached the lighthouse surprisingly smoothly despite Chloe’s claims of drinking.

“Here, it’s cold.” Chloe slipped my jacket off of her shoulders and placed it over my lap. “Can, uh…” The punk looked over to me, “You _need_ to wait here.” And without another word, or waiting for my response the truck door was slammed shut. Looking out the windshield and watching Chloe walk over to the glow of a small amateur campfire, with two other girls sitting beside it. Assumedly her friends from earlier in the week. One was holding a piece of paper which was on fire and the other was leaning on a bench smoking. I watched Chloe approach them, but as Rachel and Max saw her coming Rachel dropped the flaming sheet of paper and jumped to her feet, causing Max to rush over and grab her by the arms. I heard incoherent shouting, muffled by the case of metal I was sitting in. Observing through the hazy dark I saw Rachel was tugging to get away from Max’s grip. Every fibre in my being was forcing me to go against Chloe’s wish of staying put, and I did. Cracking the door open I heard the shouting.

“Just leave again!” Max was yelling, though Chloe was still approaching “I can’t hold her for much longer Chlo!”

“Yeah run away again you don’t have the guts to stick around!” Rachel’s words were physically stinging in the way they projected through the air.

When I decided to get out of the truck, Chloe had reached the others and was standing a mere centimetre from Rachel’s thrashing. Before long Rachel had launched free of Max’s hold and cracked Chloe across the face causing Chloe to stumble back, but no look of pain or anger came across her face as she held the source of new pain, they stood in silence the only sound was Rachel’s heavy breathing but there was an unmistakable tension sitting around us all. I approached them anxiously, not sure of how my presence would be taken.

 

Rachel locked eyes with me and scoffed “Of course.” She snarled “Of course you bring _her_.”

 

Chloe looked over her shoulder and upon seeing me she turned her whole body around “I told you to wait in the truck, Kate.”

 

“Oh I told you to wait in the tuck Kate” Rachel mimicked and in the ever dancing light from the flames of the makeshift fire, I could see Rachel’s face was in no better condition than Chloe’s, her cheek was swelling and she had a thick cut oozing blood just above her eyelid. I turned my attention quickly to Max who was advancing towards Rachel, placing a hand on her shoulder.

 

“Why are you being like this Rachel?” Chloe questioned the girl, while still facing me “I don’t understand what could possibly be wrong!” she turned on the spot and took a step closer to the blonde, their faces were too close for anybody’s comfort “You’ve got two parents who love you, friends who care so much about you, all the money you need _and_ now you’ve got frank, who fuels every sick addiction you’ve got.” She laughed sarcastically throwing her arms up in the air “Heck maybe if you stopped injecting that shit into your body you wouldn’t be so fucked up!” Max and I both watched in shock as my normally calm and fun blue haired friend turned into a raging pile of pent up anger.

 

There was silence, I stepped forward and grabbed Chloe by the arm pulling her backwards, but she started shrugging out of my grip when Rachel spoke up again, this time with a slight twang of hurt in her voice.

“Stay out of this, bitch.”

“Hey.” Chloe’s tone was a mix between boiling anger and calmness. “Don’t, Rachel. Just-just don’t okay.” Chloe put her hand on the small of my back, just like she did that day at the diner, and began to lead me away towards the truck. But as our backs were turned I could hear the faint noise of footsteps running towards us.

“Kate!” Max’s voice rang out as I whipped my body around and saw Rachel so close to me, extending her leg violently. Her foot collided with my side as I was turning to face her in the confusion. The sharp agony radiating from my freshly kicked kidney was added to as I was knocked off my feet and onto the ground, banging my head, right on the temple, I saw stars and my vision was tunnelling, the black vignette intensifying by the millisecond.

“WHAT THE HELL RACHEL!?” I head Chloe shout at the other blonde along with the sound of what would have been an agonising blow, then a thump of what I can only assume to have been Rachel getting knocked to the ground.

“Chloe stop!” Max’s voice. There was more sounds of repeated strikes “She’s had eno-“ My hearing was replaced with ringing.

After seconds which felt like days laying on the ground I could feel strong hands begin to lift me, the arms felt sturdy and safe. Through the ringing I could make out the muffled words of my saviour “I’m sorry, can you please take care of her Max? Please make sure she’s okay when she comes to. _Please_. Tell her I’m sorry” Chloe’s apologies stung my heart for a reason unknown to me.

I felt sleepy, so sleepy. I decided to give in and close my eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

I slowly blinked my eyes the bright light of the room assaulting my pupils, groaning I moved my arms to sit up on my elbows, becoming aware of the striking pain that shot through my body from my head. Wincing from the pain I brought my hand to the source.

“Kate?” The soft voice of Chloe appeared cottony through the haze of pain, her worried face came into view. “Kate?” she repeated a picture of pain painted over her features when I didn’t reply immediately.

“Hi” my voice was groggy and scratchy, my throat felt like sand paper and my mouth was as dry as sand. But watching Chloe’s face light up into a beautiful smile when I finally responded.

“Kate!” She said once more “I’m so happy you’re awake, are you feeling alright? Do you need anything?” The beat-up girl was hovering over me, frantically scanning my face and body.

“Yeah, actually could I get some water please, Chloe?”

“Of course.” And with that she darted to the other side of the room and returned shortly with a bottle of water which she opened and handed to me.

As I was sipping the lukewarm water I was watching Chloe look at me, her brow was furrowed and she was scanning every inch of me, not in a creepy way, but more of in a concerned parent way.

“How’s your head feeling?”

I turned my attention to the feeling, it was like my head was filled with static that was somehow being compressed. “ _Fuzzy._ ” I handed the bottle back to Chloe “How long was I unconscious?”

“You were in and out of it for about 6 hours.” She said screwing the top back onto the almost empty bottle “If you didn’t completely wake up in another hour I was going to take you to the ER.” Set sat the bottle onto the side table “Though I probably should’ve done that as soon as it happened…” She furrowed her eyebrows again and pursed her lips sighing “I guess I’m kinda stupid for not doing that.”

“No you’re not you stayed with me all this time. Did you even sleep, it was _you_ who took a beat down earlier.” I tried to laugh but it hurt and turned into a grimace which caused Chloe to slightly stand and extend her arm to touch my head.

“I think you’ll find it was actually you that went down.” She pulled her hand back and returned to her seat.

“Well either way,” I lay down again, my head softly hitting the pillow as to not cause any pain “you get into a fight again and I’ll whoop your ass even worse than any fight ever could.”  I breathed. Chloe only laughed back.


	8. Chapter 8

It took about three days for me to feel completely better, but throughout those three days Chloe would stay by my side and offer to help with everything I needed to do, she took responsibility for feeding Alice and keeping her water topped up, she kept the small space tidy and was kind enough to provide me with food and water or assist me in walking to classes if I was too dizzy to walk, she even stayed overnight, insisting on sleeping on the small couch in my dorm despite the many times I told her she could share my bed. She’d blush and stutter out that she didn’t want to accidently touch my head or still dully throbbing side, which is sweet of her I suppose but I wish she’d accept because I can’t shake the feeling that being in her arms is what I need to feel better.

“You good?” Chloe questioned as I was standing up out of bed.

“Yes, nurse Chloe. I’m fine now. I was fine _yesterday_.” I rolled my eyes as the blue haired girl was fretting over me.

“I know but I just want to make sure you’re _really_ alright.” She fussed more, watching eagerly as I stretched.

“Well I am. Thank you.” I walked over to her and held her by the waist, feeling her tense and stiffen beneath my touch made me giggle slightly. We stood for a moment, then Chloe mimicked my actions, tucking her arms in and placing her tensed hands onto my waist. I found it comical how I, Kate Marsh, a good Christian girl, was the more comfortable one in this situation.

Our t-rex esc embrace didn’t last too long, as Chloe hesitantly placed the ghost of a kiss onto my head and pulled away her face noticeably bright red.

“You better get to class.” She stumbled out, her tongue tripping over each syllable.

“That’s true.” I agreed “Will you still be around later?” I asked my eyebrows moving up my head.

“If you want me to be.” She turned and her face still had the slightest hints of colour.

“I do.”

“Alright then,” She grinned “I will be then.”

With that I got about my normal schedule, getting dressed and preparing my notes before heading out the door with Chloe, who was returning home to drop off her worn clothes.

During classes I still got worried looks from friends and the usual ‘how are you feeling today, Kate?’ from teachers but all I could think about was Chloe, and what we are to one another; ‘friends with undertones of liking each other’. I’d think I’d like it to be more than just undertones. I think I like Chloe, but everything my family has taught me goes against how I feel towards this punkass delinquent, from her drinking to her addictions to her degenerate nature. But I can’t help it, I’m so drawn to her douchey charm and her messy blue hair, and that shit eating grin and god. I’m going to tell her, I am going to tell her. Tonight, yes. I’m going to tell her tonight. I decided all this in one class and I couldn’t stop thinking of ways to do it and how to tell her, then slowly but oh so surly the doubts came into play ‘what if she doesn’t like me back’ ‘what if she likes dudes’ ‘she’s way too cool to like someone like me’. I tried my best to ignore them.

After class, when I got back to my room Chloe was sitting on the bed tapping away at her busted phone.

“Hi,” I greeted her once I closed the door and upon noticing me she stood up and smiled going in for a hug, which I gratefully returned.

“Hey there, Katearoni.” She poked at my sides playfully, sharply tickling me on one side but on the other there was the slightest tinge of pain left over. “So, what do you wanna do now that you’re free of the dizziness’ grasp?” She queried me while letting go, smiling as I looked at her.

“Can we just hang out in the dorm room?” I suggested, I really wasn’t up for being in public still. Plus I wanted to tell Chloe how I felt in private.

“You’ve been doing that for basically a week!” She laughed and pulled a mock ‘surprise’ face “But sure, anything for you, dear.” As soon as she let that slip once again she tensed up, I smirked and raised an eyebrow as she pretended it didn’t happen, brushing it off while sitting back on the bed and pulling her phone out again. “You wanna watch a movie or something?” She asked quickly filling the silence.

“Sure, what you got?” I sat my bag down in its usual spot and handed Chloe her laptop before removing my cardigan and joining her on the bed.

“Uhh,” She wracked her brains while opening the lid of the device “I’m pretty sure I have mad max fury road, fight club, die hard and dead man walking.” She tapped in her password “Though I think dead man walking is the tamest.”

“Alright.” I smiled moving closer to her “Dead man walking it is.”

We ended up watching both dead man walking and fight club, I have to say Chloe was right about dead man walking being the tamest she had. Though somewhere during the second movie, we had shifted from sitting to laying down close to each other on my small single bed, the laptop balancing between both our legs. During the move I thought a lot about how Chloe seems to get into fights a lot, then thought back to how her and Rachel kicked off on one another.

“Chloe.” I asked once the screen went to black.

“Hmm?” She responded, while shifting up to gently drop the device to the floor before laying down again.

“Why were you and Rachel fighting?” as soon as I asked the atmosphere in the room changed completely.

Chloe stumbled out variations of ‘I’ ‘we’ and ‘uh’ before taking a deep breath and sighing it out. “The truth is Kate. It was over… You.”

“What?” I asked, my voice high with sudden curiosity, was it my fault Chloe was getting hurt, _and_ hurting others?

“Yeah, uh.” The girl went back to pulling her beanie over her face like she did the night we first met “Rachel was afraid her and Max were going to lose me, because I talked about. _You,_ so much…” She rolled over to face me, removing her beanie “I just really like you Kate, and Rachel didn’t like that.”

“Oh.” My mind was racing, ‘does she mean like or _like like_ ’ ‘does she mean she talked about me a lot or she _talked_ about me a lot’ “Uh” I wasn’t sure what to say, “I like you too… L-like really like you too.” There was awkward air in between us for a moment, no one really thinking they knew what the other meant.

“Like, really like?” Chloe asked humorously, exaggerating her cocked eyebrow.

“Yes, like really like.” I playfully shoved the taller girl form our laying position, both of us chuckling breathily before the noise seemed to shrink away and the air grew dead, but in a good way. We were left with the last slither of light coming through the window, illuminating Chloe just enough that I could see her eyes clearly looking at mine.

“Dude,” I breathed out, inches from Chloe’s face “just kiss me already.” Chloe pulled away slightly, eyes widened in surprise of my words, but soon turned as black as sin as she slowly leaned in towards me and whispered in my ear a simple; “Alright” that sent a tingle down my spine, before coming back around and quickly, but gently pressing our lips together. Feeling the way both our lips fit together felt like everything in the world was finally aligned perfectly.


End file.
